User talk:Barneyinblue
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[edit] HL2 Character Headshots
Hey, Barney. I'm trying to contact any HL article editors I can find (Although I can't find many, if any who appear to be common editors of all Half-Life related articles) regarding some mass edits made by GaMeRuInEr. There isn't one common place to discuss HL wiki realted things, so I'm just adding this to relevant user talk pages (As opposed to adding this to every single article discussion page which has been affected).
User GaMeRuInEr has recently gone through every single HL2 character article and added, or replaced, the main character headshots with his own. However, I don't think some of his screenshots are an improvement over the originals for reasons I am listing here:
(Forgive my choice of wording with some of these, because although I actually only intend for you and the few other people I'm going to try to contact to read this, I wrote it hoping that somehow everyone involved with editing HL articles would see this)
- All of his pictures appear to be taken in a model viewer with a black background (It might be just spawned models in Garry's Mod's black room, but the results are the same), while the original screenshots of these characters were taken in-game in environments where they were actually encountered (moody lighting and all). I feel that these black void pictures don't do the characters justice as these are supposed to be, although fictional, people deeply involved in an expanding plotline that's quite indepth compared to other games. Putting them in front of a black background makes them feel very far removed from the games' reality, and somewhat awkward if you ask me. I have no problem with model viewer screenshots for generic enemies (Such as Combine soldiers, Xen creatures, etc.), but these are unique characters in the game, so I believe that the in-game shots were very suitable for their articles.
- Also, the black color tend to make certain models blend into the background, which is especially true for any character with black hair (However, I'm not implying that all these pictures should be redone with a different color background).
- As another side effect of taking a screenshot from a model viewer (Or spawned models in Garry's Mod), none of the characters have facial expressions. They just use the default blank expression, which looks kind of creepy and doesn't really occur as such in-game. Since realistic facial expressions are one of the most significant features of the Source engine, and what makes these character seem more lifelike and believable, I think the in-game shots are far more appropriate in this regard.
- All of his pictures have been uploaded as png's. Now, I have nothing against the image format, but it's just not necessary for these types of pictures. These aren't simple 256-color, low-resolution game screenshots that the png format works so well with; these are fancy high-poly character models with the works. Png files in this case just make images needlessly large (One of his uploaded pictures in png format is 1mb). A jpeg can have twice the resolution at half the size with a more than acceptable quality level.
- Just a nitpick here, but he neglected to add an image license to all of his uploaded pictures. It wouldn't be terribly difficult to go through all 25 or so pictures he uploaded and add a license, but since I'm arguing to remove some of them, I don't think the effort would be put to good use.
Now, I'm not saying that all of his uploaded pictures or all of his edits are bad, but I disagree with the headshots he has added (And in some cases, replaced entirely). I don't mean to offend this person as he seems to be new, but I think he was just a bit overzealous with his first actions. I would like to revert his headshot pictures the originals, but I don't want to act without some sort of discussion and consensus first.
I am also posting this on my talk page so there can be a common place for this discussion (I really don't mean to make this a big issue, though). Anyway, thank you for your time and help in the matter. MarphyBlack 15:12, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] HL2 headshots issue
Guys, it's me, GaMeRuInEr. I don't know if I'm in the right place, but oh well. I really do apologize if I've done any destruction to any of the articles. But if you wish, you can delete any and all of my pictures if you like. I hope you understand that I'm quite new at this and have a hard time deciding what and what not to touch. Again, I'm sorry for any destruction I've done to any of the HL series pages.
